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The US Israel Education Association has released a report arguing that the Abraham deals could reduce US reliance on China in the pharmaceutical space.
EXCLUSIVE: The China threat it may be closer to home than most Americans realize: sitting in bathroom cabinets. A new report warns that America’s reliance on Chinese-made drugs leaves the country vulnerable and points to a possible solution: welcoming friends or learning to trust allies more than adversaries.
The United States Israel Education Association (USIEA) recently released a report warning that “foreign nations are holding America’s medicine cabinets to ransom.” This includes China, which plays a key role in the US medical supply chain, with 41% of Key Sourcing Materials (KSM) used in US-approved active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) sourced exclusively from China.
In addition, the report notes that “China is the sole supplier of at least one KSM for 679 APIs, accounting for 37% of all APIs,” putting the American consumer at serious risk. USIEA argues that the current US medical supply chain it puts price ahead of security and the equivalent of “playing Russian roulette” with bad actors.
The United States Israel Education Association (USIEA) recently released a report warning that “foreign nations are holding America’s medicine cabinets to ransom.” (iStock)
“About 90% more of the pharmaceuticals, for example, that we use here in the United States by volume are generic drugs, and they’re mostly produced overseas, largely in China and India. And if China decided one day to just stop sending us pharmaceuticals for political reasons … we’d be in a very difficult situation because we need the pharmaceuticals that we really wouldn’t have in people’s lives,” said the former associate commissioner of FDA and USIEA Senior Fellow Peter Pitts on Fox Business.
The USIEA report points to the COVID-19 pandemic as a prime example of the vulnerabilities of the US pharmaceutical supply chain and how its reliance on China could become dangerous. During the pandemic, the US experienced a shortage of contrast agent, which is what medical professionals use to improve the visibility of organs, blood vessels and tissues on X-rays, CT scans and MRIs. The report notes that in 2022, a large contrast agent manufacturing facility near Shanghai was shut down due to a COVID lockdown, causing chaos in the US.
“Here at home, this led to dramatic declines in angiograms, perfusion scans and other tests crucial for stroke evaluations, cancer diagnoses and other urgent medical care,” the report says. “This plant in China provides almost all the contrast agent used in the United States. It’s not hard to imagine similar supply chain crises for diabetes test strips or ADHD drugs, or penicillin for geopolitical purposes.”
The problem, however, predates the pandemic. The USIEA report refers to a case in 2008 in which an inferior anticoagulant from China killed 81 people and seriously injured 785.
The FDA’s view of Chinese production is also limited and tightly controlled, which the USIEA considers a “recipe for disaster.”
As the report explains, when inspectors are required to notify a facility in advance, “manufacturing records are altered, factory floors are cleaned, expired supplies are moved, and access to many key areas is restricted.”
Torasemid AL high blood pressure tablets exit a Fette Compacting 2090i machine, manufactured by Fette GmbH, at the Stada Arzneimittel AG pharmaceutical factory in Bad Vilbel, Germany, in 2014. (Kristian Bocsi/Bloomberg)
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The organization proposed a solution that has already had some force in Washington: the establishment of a FDA’s Office of Abraham Agreements. The report describes the office as a “regional regulatory mission” that would act as “a deployed extension of the FDA” with three broad priorities: economic security, public health and diplomatic leadership.
The goal of the FDA’s Office of Abraham Agreements, according to the report, would be to “institutionalize cronyism, allowing the US to diversify essential drug supply chains through trusted partners while maintaining the FDA’s ‘gold standard’ for oversight.” This would allow the US to shift its reliance from riskier nations, such as China, to friendlier ones, such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
A bipartisan bill which has already passed the House has a provision for the creation of the FDA’s Office of Abraham Accords. The bill, known as HR1262, or the “Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act,” was introduced by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, in February and has bipartisan co-sponsors. Under the legislation, the office would not approve drugs, but would instead work as a liaison between the FDA and manufacturers in Abraham Accord nations.
The USIEA argues that Abraham accord nations can be “trusted partners who share regulatory standards and political alignment.”
“Abraham accord countries have made a decision to look to the 21st century … So it’s provided this opportunity to expand into an area of the world that, frankly, the United States, especially in this space, had largely ignored,” USIEA director of policy and strategic operations EJ Kimball told Fox Business.
However, the strategy of supporting friends is as practical as it is political, as Kimball, Pitts and the USIEA argue that the nations of the Abraham Accords are ready to meet the pharmaceutical needs of the US.
“(Israel and the UAE) are two very stable entities that are very advanced in a number of different areas, not the least of which is pharmaceutical development and manufacturing,” Pitts said. “They punch way above their weight in these spaces.”
Employees work on the production line of Xiaoqinglong capsules, a cough medicine, at a factory in 2023 in Shenyang, China’s Liaoning Province. (VCG via Getty Images)
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The push to expand pharmaceutical cooperation with Abraham accord nations is about more than securing the U.S. supply chain; it would also allow the US to get ahead of Chinese influence. Kimball warns that China has been working hard to try to deepen its presence in the Middle East. However, he and Pitts believe that if they add to their Abraham Accords relations, the US can stop China in its tracks.
“Morocco made it very clear to us that they wanted to work with the United States, and China is knocking on their door. And they do a little bit of work with China, but they understand the threat that it poses to them, and so if the United States doesn’t at some point come knocking on their door as well, eventually China will come in because you can only say ‘no’ for so long,” Kim said at such a long time.
Pitts criticized US administrations for “giving the cold shoulder” to potential international partners without thinking about the consequences. However, he believes the US can still attract countries that have turned to China.
The hard capsules containing the drug “Grippostad” are produced at the headquarters of the pharmaceutical manufacturer STADA in Bad Vilbel. (Boris Roessler/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
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“As soon as we open our arms and say we want to do business with countries that we trust, with countries that embrace high quality, with countries that don’t cheat, with countries that play fair, with countries that recognize the value of technological advancement for reasons other than military and geopolitical, you know, we win without a hitch, and everybody wins,” Pitt said.
The USIEA asserts that moving the supply chain to friendlier nations, such as those in the Abraham Accords, is not only a strategic move but an essential act to protect national security. As the report says, “In a world where supply disruptions can endanger national stability as much as military threats, ensuring access to essential medicines is an act of sovereignty.”
